Letting Go of the Attachment to Self, Looking At Things As One Body, and Doing Well In the Course of Validating the Fa

November 08, 2003

(Clearwisdom.net) Looking back at the course of my own cultivation and that
of my fellow practitioners, especially from examining past experiences and
mistakes, I have realized that forming a flawless single body and advancing as a
whole in a region is crucial for denying the old forces' arrangements and
providing salvation to all sentient beings. At the same time, it's another
aspect of letting go of the attachment to self and the mind-set of proving how
well I have cultivated and how correctly I have enlightened, so as to harmonize
Dafa with a pure heart.

Below are some understandings of mine drawn from what I have experienced. I
submit this article hoping that in future truth clarification efforts, we can
all leap out of the notion of self, and think more from the viewpoint of one
body.

A practitioner I respect highly said a few days before he was arrested, "My
righteous thoughts shine with golden radiance, eradicating all evil beings. The
moment they arrest me will be the moment you'll see how I shall eliminate them!
A true Falun Dafa practitioner will not be moved in the face of persecution
until death." He was arrested and sentenced to some 10 years in prison. At the
time I had been getting Falun Dafa materials, as well as Minghui news from him.
For almost 6 month afterwards I was unable to obtain any Falun Dafa materials or
Minghui articles, including Master's new lectures.

I believe that although practitioners' xinxing (heart or mind nature, moral
character) levels may vary, if every practitioner is willing to put him or
herself within the whole body, to cultivate and do things together, he will be
functioning as a Fa particle. If everyone can become a Fa particle, everybody
will be able to better validate the Fa, utilizing our abilities to the fullest,
while denying the old forces and providing salvation to sentient beings. On the
other hand, if you cannot get rid of the notion of self, even if, on the
surface, the things you are doing are the same, from the viewpoint of the Fa,
are you doing it for the purpose of establishing virtue, or proving to others
that you are right? This will not only be a loophole that the old forces will
exploit to persecute practitioners and make their arrangements, it also deviates
from the entire progress of truth-clarification. Therefore, keeping a good
mind-set of being one body will allow us to better utilize ourselves and
eliminate any loopholes. The old forces will no long have excuses to arrange
what they wanted to do.

Another practitioner whom I obtain materials from knew before she was
arrested that her Falun Dafa material-producing site was monitored. However, she
held that, "More than half of the cells in my body have been rectified (this
kind of thinking is actually deviated from the Fa). I can sense any evil that is
10 meters away from me." And so she paid less attention to safety and relied
completely on supernormal abilities to make a judgment. Consequently, this led
to an arrest. I think that this is another way of not being able to step out of
personal cultivation. It causes practitioners to loose the ability to rationally
reason and to see from the perspective of the overall situation. This impairs
the practitioner's ability to consciously make judgments, resulting in loopholes
of relying on supernormal abilities. The result is that an individual
practitioner was persecuted, and this negatively impacted the whole body.

Recently several practitioners and I noticed many policemen surrounding our
building. Due to a variety of reasons, we didn't take immediate action, such as
sending righteous thoughts, relocating materials, or eliminating the logs on our
computers. At the time all I said was, "There's something wrong today, we should
be watchful." However, a practitioner stated, "If in our minds we don't have a
notion of whether we will be persecuted or not, and the righteous thoughts are
strong, we shouldn't have any problems (This is also a deviation from the Fa,
because they have forgotten that on the pretext of all this, they should,
instead, walk the righteous path in Dafa, and try to look inward to rectify any
incorrect factors in ourselves). Thus I carried some materials and went
downstairs myself. As soon as I reached the entrance of the building, several
policemen rushed past me and headed upstairs. Later on, I heard that the
practitioners were detained in a detention center. This directly affected the
source of Falun Dafa materials, as well as information from Minghui. The very
night of the incident, I contacted several other practitioners related to this
material site, but soon after another practitioner whom I had contacted was
arrested and sent to the "610 office" brainwashing center.

These practitioners that were recently detained are those who did
truth-clarification work at home. Almost all had, for many reasons after going
astray, hesitated for a long time in publishing a solemn declaration. I think
this is also a loophole in the improvement of the whole body. For themselves,
they were not able to view the solemn declarations from the Fa's viewpoint,
unconsciously believing that once you solemnly declare your intention to nullify
your previous statement, so and so will happen, etc. The common excuse is, "I'll
first continue doing truth-clarifying work. We'll talk about it later." And then
they would put it off for a long time. When encountering problems, they often
think from the perspective of an ordinary person, "The evil knows I'm 'reformed'
and they won't trouble us anymore. I'll wait till the situation gets better and
then solemnly declare my previous statement null and void."

As a matter of fact, this actually gives the evil more opportunities,
creating unrelenting tribulations for you. How can it get better? When the Fa
rectification is brought to a conclusion, there won't be any chance for you to
do it. The losses caused by it to the whole body cannot be compensated. I know
for a fact that there are many practitioners like this out there, using all
kinds of excuses to try to conceal themselves, instead of getting rid of this
blemish. I believe that sending forth righteous thoughts still won't be able to
clean out the blemish. Master is benevolently providing salvation to all
sentient beings, and Master taught us the Fa principles regarding solemn
declarations. The purpose is to save us. Solemn declarations are the best way to
validate the Fa and deny the old forces. So why be so reluctant to do it? I
believe that after getting astray, one should immediately repent for those
misdeeds, and once again become a Fa particle. This is also a major part of
harmonizing the Fa and making the whole body flawless.

Other practitioners, in the rapid progress of Fa-rectification, for some
reason have remained in the past, such as saying that in 1999 I was doing such
and such, and during 7/20 of 1999, in 2000, 2001, and 2002 I was doing so and
so, etc. What about now? These practitioners often say in conversations, "You
have to harmonize the Fa in the ordinary level too, because this is also a level
of Fa, because this is the future's only reference, etc." And yet when it comes
to the three things Master requires us to do, they don't do so well.

They haven't been using the best way to validate Dafa. Not wanting to change
themselves, they always find some passages from the Fa as an excuse to justify
their actions, thinking that to conform to the human society as much as possible
can replace validating the Fa and clarifying the truth. Oftentimes these
practitioners seem more or less slanted against Minghui. Some are even reluctant
to send forth righteous thoughts. This is another factor keeping us from
advancing as a one body and harmonizing Dafa.

I think that to advance as a whole body and to eliminate loopholes, we Falun
Dafa practitioners need to make efforts together. If we can really improve
ourselves, the evil old forces will not only have no loopholes to exploit, but
will be eliminated altogether, allowing us to better clarify the truth to
everyday people. Whenever a problem occurs we must help out other practitioners.
We have to expose the evil, look inwards more, and advance as a flawless whole
body.

The above are my own understandings, please kindly point out any mistakes.